WT 26 - The Flame Spirit was swallowed by her

 

After the excitement of throwing herself at Prince Heng, Wan Ting once again became silent with exhaustion riding her heavily. She followed behind Prince Heng like his little tail and did not respond to the fight around her.

 

Because of that, Prince Heng did not join the fight and only offered some assistance from the sideline. He does not dare to test if Miss Wan would react to any danger befalling onto her in time. 

 

It was not an easy battle by any means. 

 

The number of their allies was drastically reduced, and Prince Heng's guards were only less than half of the original figure, causing a sharp sense of loss in his heart. 

 

The disciple with the fashionable goatee had sacrificed himself to protect Elder Qing Shu that had suffered a serious injury. He had a deep cut on his waist and had to be bandaged to stop it from gaping open, not that losing a large volume of blood was not dangerous either. 

 

They could not risk letting the fight go on. Escape was their priority now that the hostage was retrieved. 

 

Jiu was very angry when he saw Wan Ting was with them, clearly alive. His Master’s method had failed to let the Flame Spirit mature but instead helped the girl to some degree. He does not know what happened to the Flame Spirit, but they will need to try another method. 

 

Regardless, he could not let them leave with her. They had been searching for a Flame Spirit for a long time and could not effort search for another.

 

Their sect master's time was limited.

 

However, even if his mind was determined, his body could not do what he wanted. A large part of his shoulder was missing, courtesy of Elder Qing Shu’s mighty punch.

 

“No matter what, we cannot lose her!” Jiu ordered the disciples angrily. He controlled his inner energy to flare to allow other disciples from other peaks to notice their distress call. As a prideful direct disciple of the sect master, he hardly asked others for help and it makes him feel a sharp sense of embarrassment to do this.

 

When he gets back that girl, he will make sure to break her legs to stop her from escaping!

 

Perhaps Jiu’s gaze was too murderous, Wan Ting broke out from her trance and met his eyes. Her pupils trembled slightly from fear when she recognized him. Even if Jiu had not treated her badly, merely gazing at her with indifferent eyes, it was exactly his unconcerned gaze that terrified her. 

 

He was looking at her as if she was an object to be discarded after use. 

 

A large back covered her sight and pulled her back from her disturbing thoughts. “Elder Qing Shu, it’s time to make our forceful escape.”

 

Elder Qing Shu certainly agreed with Prince Heng, as his current state was not good for battling. His pills were more concentrated on enhancing strength, not healing. That was more of Owner Yu’s forte. The rest of the disciples have medicinal pills, but not a miracle pill that could instantly revive him and heal his injuries. 

 

Pulling out a thin pipe of the length of his thumb, he blew on it, letting out a sharp, but low pitch. Wan Ting expected something to happen immediately after he blew the pipe, but nothing happened, even after a long while. 

 

“Retreat!” Elder Qing Shu yelled at his disciples and everyone started to back away while covering each other’s backs. 

 

“Not so easy!” Jiu snarled and had his bleeding hand stabbed into the soft ground, which started to shake fiercely as if something large was crawling out from deep down. 

 

It was unknown who spoke then. “Earthworm incoming! Jump onto the roof!”

 

Prince Heng wrapped an arm around Wan Ting’s waist and had her follow him up, landing onto a roof safely. Just as the warning said, a large earthworm came crashing out of the ground. But this earthworm was not an average earthworm but experimented until its strength was finally recognized to be a suitable protector of their sect. The fat, ugly, earthworm at the size of a pond was currently under command of Jiu mentally, and its attack was focused on getting back Wan Ting. That would mean removing Prince Heng that was beside her out of view. 

 

Without any weapon on hand, Wan Ting felt useless for only relying on Prince Heng for protection and became his burden. There were so many close instances where the earthworm nearly injured Prince Heng and he always dodged in time with Wan Ting in his arms. 

 

“Do you have a sword?” Wan Ting asked with furrowed eyebrows as she watched the seemingly delicate paper fan was able to fight against the large earthworm. She had not expected Prince Heng’s cultivation to be this high that he could harden a fragile item. 

 

“No.”

 

When the earthworm passed by Prince Heng’s arm, Wan Ting’s throat felt blocked for the fifth time. Knowing that she could not continue to remain passive or Prince Heng would really get injured for real, her mind scrambled for ways to help. But the only weapon that she knew how to yield was a sword.

 

Martial arts at her level was completely useless to this giant earthworm with thick skin.

 

The other thing she was good at was pill forging, but she has no ingredients to make one that could help weaken the earthworm… except for the Flame Spirit. 

 

Her back started to sweat in panic, as she only knew how to use Flame Spirit when she was forging pills. She could create fire out of thin air, but she never tried to hold it for long and always had a target to direct her fire at.

 

Bao Hai says she could help her learn how to use Flame Spirit, but they had not even had their first lesson when Wan Ting was kidnapped. But could she still manifest fire after absorbing the Flame Spirit?

 

It was Elder Qing Shu that first noticed Owner Yu hiding at the corner of a building, trying to get his attention. On his palm was a little snail which was connected to the short flute that the elder blew earlier, acting as a guide. 

 

Seeing that there was a slumped figure with tattered clothing which was soaked with new and old blood, everyone could not help but wonder how this person could still be alive. 

 

Knowing Owner Yu will not randomly help a person, Elder Qing Shu knew that the task of finding the person was completed. “Find a way to leave this place!”

 

“Bao Hai can bring us out,” Owner Yu gave Bao Hai a reassuring smile when the latter frowned with uncertainty. “Don’t worry, just find the exit and we will follow behind you.”

 

“I will try,” Bao Hai could only do that since they do not have other options. 

 

“We will need to deal with that ugly earthworm first, or at least delay it until the exit is found. Ning Ke, you are the one with the best memory-”

 

Before Elder Qing Shu finished his words, the disciple by the name of Ning Ke hurriedly answered, “Yes, Elder! I remember the way back to where we appear!” Then he suddenly became gloomy. “But I don’t know from which item we came from.”

 

To be able to make such a secret realm with their entrance attached to an item that could be moved around, it would need an item inside a secret realm to act as a cord to link them. 

 

“It’s already plenty of help, right, Bao Hai?” At Owner Yu’s gaze, Bao Hai quickly nodded. 

 

“Then we need to delay the enemies-”

 

Foosh!

 

Their dark surrounding suddenly lit up brightly as if a large bonfire was set up. It came from the rooftop, from the direction where Prince Heng and his guards were fighting against the earthworm. 

 

The earthworm was caught on fire, which was rather a huge fire and it seems to be inextinguishable no matter how much it rolled around the ground. Its large movement toppled some buildings after crashing into them, which made Jiu angry and trying to control the earthworm that was in pain. 

 

What made Jiu even angrier was that the currently panicking girl in Prince Heng’s embrace was trying to smother the fire caught onto the paper folding fan. He does not know what happened, but she could use the fire of a matured Flame Spirit!

 

He trusted Shiyi's assessment of her initial level, so this must be the outcome of her inside the cauldron!

 

The Flame Spirit was swallowed by her!